Life, Knitting, and the pursuit of Roller Coasters

Follow my adventures in the worlds of knitting and amusement parks, and probably some other areas of my life too.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Yarn Crawl Spoils

Rachel and I headed up to Lansing for a few hours of quality spending time. We spent a good amount of time and money at ThreadBear and also stopped into Rae's Yarn Boutique. both were lovely stores, ThreadBear was a little overwhelming just because I haven't been in a sizable LYS yet, and this one was huge. Rae's was tiny and cramped for space, but still had a great selection of stuff.

So, what'd I buy?

Sock yarn. Some Opal handpainted in greens, some Socks That Rock in colorway Alina, Lorna's Laces in Daffodil, Amber Sock Yarn Hand Dyed colorway called Daulia (the orange/yellow/pink stuff) and the Orange is a cotton acrylic that was in the clearance bins.

Noro - Color 178. Enough for a Booga Bag. Lily wants to know why mom is stacking the yarn in the window.

Also hidden behind the Noro, enough Cascade 220 to do a blue Swatch and Block bag. And 3 skeins of heathered lavendar wool from Bartlett Yarns that I haven't decided on a project for yet.

And finally, this skein of red laceweight that is super soft, most likely Japanese and the shop had it labeled "Lacy Lamb", and the copper colored hand dyed 50% wool 50% silk laceweight that I couldn't keep my hands off of and had to take with me regardless of the price. These will each be used for a lacey shawl of some sort or another.

I also picked up a set of Britney Birch dpns and an Addi circ to play with. So much for getting any cleaning done this weekend, I'm off to play with some new toys.

I'm liking the way the varrigation is sort of striping inside the chevrons and for such loud yarn, the short bursts of color are making for a busy but more subtle sock that I think I'm really going to enjoy. They're still loud, but not the loud I expected to see and definitely not as loud as they would be if the colors pooled or flashed. It will be interesting to see if that all changes in the foot.

My friend Rachel and I are going on a little yarn crawl in Lansing tomorrow, so I should at least have some new spoils to share while I'm hanging out in my knit-sock-obsessed world.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

More Socks

The green socks have been completed.

Finished Object: Green SocksYarn: KimiK's hand dyed merino sock yarnPattern: Just a generic stockinette sock. I used a Welsh heel and a French toe

This yarn was such a joy to work with. So soft and squishy. I love the colors, and other than a little flash in the gussets, the coloring stayed evenly random. Great range of greens and turquoises with a little burgundy mixed in for good measure. The socks fit great and I've definitely caught the sock bug. 2 pair are off the needle, and in the time it's taken me to make those, I've gathered enough sock yarn for more than a dozen more pairs.

5 reasons not to go shopping with my mom

Top row: (left) Sneaker/Sandals... too cool to pass up, good for coaster trips(center) Crocs ... after that coaster trip with all the water mishaps, waterproof shoes seemed like a good idea(right) Croc flip flops... I normally don't like flip flops, these are my attempt to convert myself

Bottom row: (left) reception shoes for wearing at the reception so 1) my feet won't kill me and 2) I won't look like an amazon next to my boyfriend(right) wedding shoes, white strappy heels to wear during the ceremony.

Wedding is 2 weeks from today... don't even ask about the progress on my shawl. But, I'll have more socks by then.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Happy Feet

Finished Object: My first socks!Pattern: Madder Ribbed Socks, Knitting Vintage Socks - as writtenYarn: Knitpicks Simple Stripes in VineyardThese took me a while, mostly because after finishing the first sock, I finished another before tackling the second sock completely. But I now have a pair, and they match. The second one did move a little quicker with all the car knitting and with the other sock to reference too. the main difference colorwise between the two socks was in the toe, and obviously that's not going to be noticable in shoes. I'm pretty sure I wasn't counting as well as I could have when I made the first toe, so the second is a little more accurate to the pattern.

I wore them to work today and I love them. I'm definitely a convert to the hand-knitted sock club and I'm sure I'll have socks on the needles a lot from here on out.

Randomness

Probably just easier to post a bunch of random stuff to get caught up today.

1) Despite spending the next morning knitting at the water park with another coaster enthusiast'swife who was spinning on a drop spindle at the next table over, This is the only knitting related photo I took on our trip. It was when I finished my first green sock the first night of the trip. I've mostly only made sock progress since then, I have finished the second striped sock (the pair will get it's own post tonight once I've gotten photos) and have the second green sock on the needles now.

2) Holiwood Nights at Holiday World was the definite highlight of the trip. We covered 9 states, 9 parks in 11 days and while there were a zillion highlights, those two days with almost all of our coaster friends present for the event was absolutely amazing. Even if I did get a funny sunburn and fell in the bumper boat pool.

3) You may get wet on this ride

Our friend Kyle caught this photo when he smartly sat out of the raft ride at Six Flags over Georgia. Mike and I are somewhere under that massive wave and were miserably soaked the remainder of the day.

4) 29 isn't so bad, I was able to spend a quiet birthday on Sunday at home with my parents and other family this year instead of jetsetting around the country for the weekend. It was relaxing and it was nice to get caught up with my awesome aunt and uncle visiting from Oregon. I have every intention of jetsetting somewhere cool for birthday 30 next year though.

5) Other than socks, I haven't knit on any of my other projects in the last couple weeks. Talk about xtreme knitting, I have 3 weeks to my brother's wedding and maybe 3 inches of my stole/wrap/shawl done so far. Ouch!